In general, Tokyoers don't really give their seats on the trains / subways to others who may need it more. Just like at home. :P It's mostly true in my case too, although I mostly occupy one of the the standing places, and no one's really interested in it anyway. However, I also take one of the seats sometimes (what a huge deal, right?), and sometimes I give that seat to someone else afterwards. This post will be about one of those times...

It all happened back in April, when my girlfriend and I were on our way home from one of our excursions. We were quite tired, so we were happy to have found some empty seats on the train home. Especially considering that a roughly 2-hour train ride was awaiting us. Then at one of the stations, three old ladies got on the train and tried to sit down on the empty seat next to us. However, a single seat is obviously not enough for three people (no matter how small the Japanese are :P), so we offered them our seats. Which they gladly accepted amidst lots of thanks and apologies (I don't really know why the latter is so popular here).

Then one of them gave us a photo of buddha, along with a pink slip of paper with some kanjis on it that I can't read... She said that she always keeps a few of them in her bag so she can give them to kind people. :) Of course, both gifts bring you good luck and stuff. And to maximize the effects, you need to keep the photo at home, and the pink paper in your wallet. Which means both of my ofuda-s have received a little brother. :)

To be honest, this was the first time I received a gift for offering my seat on a train... It was a slightly weird experience, but I'm glad that the world has such kind old ladies. :) I hope she can give away a lot of this stuff in her everyday life.

Many of you have asked me to write about Japan, how's my life here, what's happening to me, etc. That's why I've created this blog, here I'll try to share with all of you every important, unimportant, interesting and boring things that I see / hear / experience here.